Rio de Janeiro (EFE) destruction of the world’s largest tropical rainforest by 2030, the government reported.
According to data released this Thursday by the Ministry of the Environment, the Brazilian Amazon lost 2,649 square kilometers of vegetation cover between January and June, an area much lower than that of the first six months of 2022 (3,988).
This is the smallest devastated area for the period since the first half of 2019 (2,447 square kilometers), precisely the first six months of the government of the far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), a defender of the economic exploitation of the Amazon.
The drop in deforestation
According to data measured by satellites from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell from 1,120 square kilometers in June 2022 to 661 square kilometers in June 2023, a reduction of 41%.
“This is a significant drop if we take into account that deforestation generally increases in June. The devastation is concentrated in the dry months (June-October), in which it is easier to operate in the Amazon,” said biologist and ecologist Joao Paulo Capobianco, Vice Minister of the Environment, at a press conference.
The official explained that the data shows that the government achieved its goal of reversing the deforestation curve in the Amazon and can expect better results in the second semester.
The Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, affirmed that the Lula government is showing positive results in the fight against deforestation in its first six months.
Silva, a world-renowned ecologist, attributed such results to both tangible resources, such as the reorganization of all inspection agencies and the reinforcement of teams and investment; as well as intangibles, among which she highlighted Lula’s will to combat deforestation.
“This result was the product of Lula’s decision to assume during the electoral campaign and from the first day of government a commitment to the policy of confronting deforestation and climate change,” he said.
Experience, key to results in the Amazon
Silva also assured that the results were also due to the fact that his team already had the experience of 2003, when Lula began the first of his three terms and also launched an ambitious policy to preserve the Amazon.
“The reality is very different from 20 years ago, because there is a new form of interaction between deforestation and organized crime, but we had in our favor the knowledge obtained in 2003, when we had to invent the wheel to combat devastation. and it took us a year to get results,” he said.
Silva admitted that deforestation increased in the Cerrado (the Brazilian savannah), the second largest ecosystem in the country, in the first six months, but that he has already identified the problems and is in a position to reverse the situation.
“In the second semester we are going to dedicate ourselves to a plan to prevent and control deforestation in the Cerrado and we want to achieve the same results as in the Amazon,” he said.
According to INPE data, the Cerrado lost 4,608 square kilometers of vegetation cover in the first half of the year, an area 21% higher than that of the same period in 2022, but while the devastation jumped 83% between May of last year and May of this year, in June there was a fall of 14.6%.